Vaucheria litorea is a species of yellow-green alga (Xanthophyceae).

Xanthophyceae (Yellow-Green Algae) are an important component of the flora in soils of Antarctica.

The class was erected to include some algae previously classified in the Xanthophyceae.

Fritsch (1935) recognizes the following orders in the class Xanthophyceae:

The species now placed in Xanthophyceae were formerly included in the Chlorophyceae.

Vaucheria is a genus of Xanthophyceae or yellow-green algae.

In 1930, Allorge renamed the group as Xanthophyceae.

Some phycologists classified them with the Xanthophyceae and the Eustigmatophyceae in the division Xanthophyta.

Class Xanthophyceae (Xanthophyta)

In both vegetative and reproductive aspects, it is remarkably similar to the genus Vaucheria, which is a member of the unrelated class Xanthophyceae.

In the classification of Smith (1938), there are six orders in the class Xanthophyceae, placed in the division Chrysophyta:

Heterokonta can be confused with the (much older) name Heterokontae, which is generally equivalent to the Xanthophyceae, a limited subset of Heterokonta.

DNA sequence comparison also suggests that the brown algae evolved from the filamentous Phaeothamniophyceae, Xanthophyceae, or the Chrysophyceae between 150 and 200 million years ago.

Coenocytic cells are present in diverse and unrelated groups of algae, including Xanthophyceae (e.g., Vaucheria), red algae (e.g., Griffithsia) and green algae.

The chlorarachniophytes were placed before in the order Rhizochloridales, class Xanthophyceae (e.g., Smith, 1938), as algae, or in order Rhizochloridea, class Xanthomonadina (e.g., Deflandre, 1956), as protozoa.

Based upon ultrastructural observations, pigment analysis and ssu rDNA phylogenetic analysis, Phaeothamnion is not a member of the Chrysophyceae and should be classified as incertae sedis with affinities to the Xanthophyceae and Phaeophyceae.

At least three species of freshwater algae have been recorded, but these have not yet been positively identified: a species of Chlorella, at least one species of Chlamydomonas, and a Xanthophyceae, perhaps Tetrakenton or Goniochloris.

A revised checklist of 354 species, subspecies, and varieties of benthic marine algae from eastern Canada is given, consisting of 128 Rhodophyceae, 128 Phaeophyceae, 90 Chlorophyceae, 7 species of Vaucheria (Xanthophyceae), and 1 of Phaeosaccion (Chrysophyceae).